"Ye are God's building:"(B4: I Cor.3:9) Specs for your soul & body by "Spirit, the great architect" (S9:S&H 68)
Part of a S.S. Class Care Package from Warren Huff, registered architect
Golden Text: Eagerly seek out all new revelations about your highest identity (i.d.), or your soul & body. (S&H 477:19-20) Anticipate and seize new views of the real you more eagerly "than they that watch for the morning." (Ps 130:6) No fake i.d. can gain you access to "the higher joys of Spirit." (S&H 66:13) In fact, only your true childlike identity will allow you to enter. (Mark 10:15) In a rush to be adults, many teens so "buy into" and mentally download the alluring images of beautiful bodies that they get "sucked into" the adult-ery and the unexpected slavery of body worship and their own identity thief. (See Specs #7 & #8.)
In the Bible lesson on "Soul and Body," spiritual seers give us inspiring insights and powerful principles that heal the body by looking AWAY from it to God instead of looking AT it or TO it, as if it were in control.
Christ Jesus promises that your "whole body shall be full of light" (Matt. 6:22) if "thine eye be single," or if your view of yourself is the same as God's view of you. In 10 God's-eye views, discover your Divine Identity Protection Plan established by "Spirit, the great architect." (S9: S&H 68) Architects use the following 10 categories of Specifications to guarantee the quality and longevity of their work. God has done the same for us as our master architect and sole "builder and maker." (Heb. 10:11) I hope you enjoy as much as I do finding & applying the fun links between the 10 Specs & 10 Commandments for your own and other's healings.
1st Architectural Specification (spec): GENERAL CONDITIONS: Your highest selfhood shall (can) have "no other gods before me." (Ex. 20:3)
This spec sets forth the principles and laws that govern the whole project. The 1st Commandment was Mrs. Eddy's favorite text (S&H 340:16) and should guide every aspect of our lives. It has been paraphrased by Barry Huff as "Don't put something in God's place that's not up to the job." Test yourself often on this 1st-Commandment idolatry indicator: "whatever you think about most is your god. Is it up to the job?" Self-absorbed sensuality, body worship, personal sense and belittling of self are some of the idolatrous, self-focused beliefs that are clearly not up to God's job. So, stop belittling yourself and keep seeing yourself as happily at one with infinite Mind, God! GENERAL CONDITION AFFIRMATIONS: Declare to yourself often, and convincingly: "I am fearfully and wonderfully made (by God as His/Her "image and likeness" (Gen. 1:26, 27) to have everything I need) and I know it 'right' well." (paraphrase of Responsive Reading from Ps. 139:14) Other 1st section affirmations include: B1: "Ask me (God, not matter or persons) of things to come" . . . "I will direct all his ways." . . . "Unto me every knee shall bow" (Isa. 45:11, 13, 23); B3: "He hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation". . . "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17: 26, 28); S4: "Christian Science reveals man as the idea of God"(S&H 477:11)
2nd Architectural Spec: SELECTIVE REMOVALS: Your highest selfhood shall "not make unto thee any graven image." (Ex. 20:4)
SELECTIVE REMOVAL/DENIALS: This spec specifically delineates everything that must be removed for the project to progress. Daily remove obstacles to progress by denying the claim that any obsession, addiction, false dependency, inherent weakness or habit can be engraved in you or can in-grave you. As our Sunday School theme reminds us: "With God alone agree!" (CS Hymnal #5:2) Removal instructions in the 2nd & 3rd sections include: B5: "we received not the spirit of the world" . . . "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth" (I Cor 2:12, 13); B6: "We are . . . willing rather to be absent from the body" (II Cor. 5:8); B9: "Flee . . . Babylon is suddenly fallen and broken" (Jer. 51:6, 8) S13: "divest thought of false trusts and material evidences" (S&H 428:8); S9: "We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood." (S&H68:6) And, a 6th-section removal guideline makes way for transformation in B19: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom. 12:2)
3rd Architectural Spec: CONCRETE: Your highest selfhood shall (can) "not take my name in vain." (Ex. 20:7)
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with strong, cavity-free concrete as expected. Don't skimp on putting a full measure of substantial nuggets (aggregate) into you treatments and mix them thoroughly with divine insights and virtues (cement) that bind them together. Don't give in to watering down your prayers with mere human solutions just to make them flow with popularity. Building with the rock-solid foundation of the Christ, your labor will never be IN VAIN. Whenever you take on your true God-like nature, you'll see wonderful, CONCRETE and practical results. Guard against the honeycombing of a weak, mixed outcome by giving yourself a "spiritual shakedown" before you speak or act. Declare and demonstrate that God made your mouth (Ex. 4:10-12) and designed it to be "filled with messages from" (CS Hymnal #324:2) him, not to yield to the unstable inconsistency (honeycomb cavities) of foul language, or of using His name in vain or in any way but in prayer & praise. B17: "For our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20)
4th Architectural Spec: MASONRY: Your God-ordained selfhood shall "remember the sabbath day" (Ex. 20:8) of Genesis 1 completion when "God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good." (Gen. 1:31) Barry Huff calls this "the only test we ever had to take" and reminds us that we have "already passed it with flying colors."
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with the "faithful mortar" and quality brickwork expected. Building a successful life (or a brick wall) seems like an accumulative process that works up to perfection. However, in showing us how to work out FROM our reflected perfection, "Christian Science presents unfoldment not accretion." (S&H 68:2) B13: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
5th Architectural Spec: METALS (incl. structural steel): Your God-ordained selfhood shall "honor thy father and thy mother." (Ex. 20:12) & everyone divinely placed in authority.
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with the infallible steel superstructure and unblemished metalwork expected. Your life would sag and ultimately collapse without a proper appreciation for your parents and the other authority figures in your life. Jesus even acknowledged that Pilate's powerful position came solely from God and therefore was controlled by God. (See John 19:10-11) Recognize that God has provided you with parents, guardians, camp staff, coaches, teachers, headmasters and law enforcement officers, all to help make things clear to you and to support and strengthen your building. Therefore "Let your love for one another be at full strength." I Peter 1:22 (Phillips translation) Here's Jesus' test of our Christianity: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:35
6th Architectural Spec: WOODS & PLASTICS: Your highest selfhood shall (can) "not kill" (Ex. 20:13) or get angry, hateful or even verbally abusive. (Matt. 5:20-24)
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with the sturdy wood framework and beautiful wood finishwork desired. When bearing what Christ Jesus calls his easy yoke and light burden (Matt. 11:30) of being a stress-free reflection of God, there's no unbearable pressure or tension that can cause a spiritual idea to snap in anger and so kill another's joy or to splinter a precious friendship. In a world crying out for peaceful solutions, let's take every opportunity we can to be flexible, forgiving peace-makers instead of brittle "goat-getters" and war-mongerers.
7th Architectural Spec: THERMAL & MOISTURE PROTECTION: Your highest selfhood shall (can) "not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14) and lust after bodily pleasures. (Matt. 5:27-28)
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with the dry, cozy and efficiently climate-controlled home you expect. You wouldn't dream of living in a house without a roof or without insulated, weather-tight surfaces. So, never accept leaky-roof or no-roof thinking and stop letting the winds of temptations blow right through you! Allow God's love to insulate and adultery-proof you like it did Jesus. See how he "threw the book" at temptations in Matt. 4:3-11 by using memorized nuggets from the scripture that he had made his own.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes after the root of adultery when it is little, when it is just lustful temptations. (See and consider memorizing Matt. 5:27-29) Paul tells the Romans "to be carnally (bodily) minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (memorize Rom. 8:6) Knowing therefore that sensuality is really just a clever terrorist that comes disguised as good and as pleasurable and as our own thought, makes it harder for this warring killer "to elude detection" (S&H 252:19). By being alert to this anarchist and murderer in our midst, we will not commit ADULT-ery by letting the belief leak in that we need anything adult-rated or material to make us happy and peacefully satisfied. Insulate and seal yourself by repeating often that "In God I have everything I need and I know it." If the mission of Terror or error (Pharaoh or Herod) is to get rid of the childlikeness praised and practiced by Christ Jesus, let us give all our alertness and strength to protect and defend childlikeness in ourselves and others.
8th Architectural Spec: DOORS & WINDOWS: Your God-ordained selfhood shall "not steal" (Ex. 20:15) or "steal another's thunder," or her ideas, or his joy.
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with the type, size and quality of windows and doors you expect. Since thieves use windows and doors (even in computers) to gain illegal acess, it's important to always "stand porter at the doors of thought." (S&H 392:24) We can also refuse to see the world through the window of "the haves" versus "the have nots." Mentally lock your door against the pride of supposed ownership of scarce resources. Mentally inoculate yourself hourly against "affluenza," the worldwide epidemic that is spread by a bazillion dollar ad campaign and is based on the false premise that acquiring or possessing things brings happiness. Temptation to steal should be healed by the revelation that happiness can only be found in giving, not in getting. (See "Happiness is . . . . . unselfish." Science and Health 57:18 and "I am able to impart truth, health and happiness and that is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing." My 165:20) Rebuilding our enemies countries after WWII with the Marshall Plan is proof that giving works wonders in healing and bringing about lasting peace.
9th Architectural Spec: FINISHES: Your highest selfhood shall "not bear false witness." (Ex. 20:16)
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with unblemished painted surfaces, floors and ceilings, all beautifully finished as you expect. You show yourself to be a refined and finished person by bearing only true witness and seeing only God's finished, perfect product, which is the way that Christ Jesus saw and healed. (See S&H 476:32) This high standard not only frees us from gossip, destructive criticism and "white lies" designed to impress others, but also alerts us to stop pre-judging others based on their race, religion and ethnic background.
10th Architectural Spec: SPECIALTIES: Your highest selfhood shall (can) "not covet" but is naturally grateful for others good. (Ex. 20:17)
This spec sets forth the quality control standards needed to end up with your home's unique elements (such as its kitchen and other appliances, modular storage & security systems, garage door opener, etc.) all as perfect and properly installed as you'd demand. It would appear that tensions in the Middle East and all over the world are being fueled by COVETING of a neighbor's SPECIALTIES, their lands, prosperity and friends. Little do those steeped in jealosy realize that their jealousy and violent acts are campaigning against their demonstration of all the good they wish to have. To counteract this mortal tendency of jealousy, let's demonstrate by example a civilized and most effective solution. When we see others possessing and demonstrating some good that we desire and have yet to fully express, let's not follow the terrorists model by being attorneys effectively arguing against ourselves in the false belief that good is limited and we don't have it. Instead, let's sincerely say "Thank You God, That's Mine Too!" (or "TYG -TMT") This type of "TMT" is much more explosive than the TNT of a car bomb or other such devise. "That's Mine Too" is a grateful declaration that as a divine idea, good has an unlimited source and is universally and unconditionally available. "I wish above all things that thy mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul (divine I.D) prospereth" (III John 1:2)
P.S. We hope to do a reprint of an illustrated version of the above outline of the 10 Commandments as "God's Specs." If you are interested email me and I'll keep you in the loop on progress and about a possible re-posting of these 10 missing pics on CedarS website as pdf files.
